Industry-aligned AI use in individual software engineering projects

This Work-in-Progress paper presents an industry-aligned framework for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into individual undergraduate and MSc Software Engineering (SE) projects. As generative and assistive AI rapidly reshapes professional software practice, traditional expectations of independent project work and the restrictive or ambiguous policies that often accompany them - no longer reflect how developers use AI for productivity and reasoning. The proposed framework formally incorporates AI use across the SE lifecycle, requiring students to log, justify, and critically evaluate their interactions to demonstrate understanding, oversight, and ownership of all outputs. Assessment focuses on reasoning quality, explainability, and responsible decision-making rather than the presence or absence of AI use. Grounded in research on project-based learning, authentic assessment, AI literacy, and responsible computing, the approach promotes transparency, metacognition, and ethical tool use. Early evaluation, supported by access to tools such as Google AI services and GitHub Copilot Pro, indicates gains in debugging, ideation, architectural reasoning, coding fluency, prompt engineering, and critical assessment of AI-generated outputs. The framework offers a practical model for rigorous, professionally aligned AI integration, with future work exploring multi-cohort evaluation and refinement of assessment components.